-(J-'- <<v 



> ,^-^. ^%I^^- ,v 



\^ 












.\^ 



VA 



<^ 



^^ 






, ' ° "■ ° 



^^0< 






,^' 






o > 




V^^'^ -'-cCvl?, 



^" :'^«: "-.. 













0° .'U^ 



^^ 



f mm^^ %^y ::m 






'■ » . « -^o f , . . , "^ ° " ° V?- °^ * " ' ■ 



V f " * ^-r o 

^ 'MM, ^ 



>^ o 
















^ 












<-. 






^The Road to Righteous 
Judgmenf' 



A Brief On the Negro 
Question 



BY J. E. CALLAWAY 



Printed 1922, Arkadelphia, Ark. 
THE SIFTINGS HERALD PTG. CO. 



Copyright 1922 
By J. E. Callaway 



)aA6S6723 



NOV 10*22 









FOREWORD 



No apology is offered for the 
sentiments herein expressed. Tho 
writer was born and reared in the 
South, and after an experience of 
more than twenty-five years at th^ 
bar, where a large part of the litiga- 
tion concerned negroes, he feels at 
liberty to offer a suggestion which 
might aid in the solution of Ameri- 
ca's biggest problem. It is to that 
end that these thoughts are directed. 

J. E. C. 
Arkadelphia, Arkansas, 
November 1, 1922. 



"The Road to Righteous 
Judgment 

SINCE the begiuuingofbistory, races, nations 
and communities bave bad problems witb 
whicb to deal. Tbe Egyptians bave ever 
wrestled witb tbe river Nile. Invasions by 
armed foes were tbe constant dread of ancient 
and medieval cities and means by wbicb to 
successfully resist tbese attacks was tbe up- 
permost tbougbt in tbe minds of tbeir inbab- 
itants. For centuries the Englisb speaking 
people lived in continuous dread of re-concur- 
rences of tbe cbolera plague, wbicb often de- 
populated cities, and it is witbin tbe memory 
of tbe present generation that tbe dread spec- 
tre of yellow fever always haunted tbe soutb 
temperate zone of tbe Western Hemispbere, 
Happily for bumanity, tbese troubles and dif- 
ficulties bave been reduced to a minimum, 
wbere not completely overcome. 

The tariff, immigration, and otber economic 
and political issues bear tbeir relative impor- 



''The Road to Righteous Judgment' 



tauce to the Aiuerican public. Each subject 
receives much thought from its respective 
champions both of the public press and the 
platform, but the life or destiny of our coun- 
try does not de]->end upon any one or all of 
these issues. 

Immigration is perhaps the weightiest of 
the above questions, but its seriousness does 
not consist so much in the nationality of the 
immigrant, but in what his political creed 
may be. The most important question v\iiich 
can ever confront any people is the fate of 
their children and what shall be their moral 
intellectual and physical complexion. Noth- 
ing so touches the instincts of the human 
heart as the welfare of the children for whom 
tlie fathers and mothers are responsible. 
Therefore the purity of the blood and racial 
integrity of our offsprings are of greater im- 
portance than any legislation which touches 
only the tem.poral affairs of life. 
6 



''The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



America is now confronted witli many 
problems. World peace is far from an ac- 
complished fact. The troubles between labor 
and capital, like the poor, we have with us al- 
ways. The liquor question will not down. 
The so-called Japanese menace while allayed 
for a time will continue to ^e a bugaboo in 
the mind of the Jingo. Many disquieting is- 
sues of lesser importance are magnified in 
the minds of the people to the extent of the 
zeal manifested by the individual in whose 
brain the particular subject finds lodgment. 
Man is indeed a strange animal whose phy- 
chosis can not be accounted for. He can sleep 
over a smouldering volcano undisturbed by 
real dangers and at the same time have night- 
mares over imaginary foes and evils which 
never materialize and which have no exist- 
ence in fact. Present and imminent dangers 
are frequently given the least thought, and 
those evils which are sometimes considered 
7 



"The Road to Righteous Judgment'' 

permanent receive tlie least attention, how- 
ever insidious they may be. 

Sociologists have theorized and speculat- 
ed and politicians have covered the subject 
with blandishments, yet no sane or practical 
solution has been proposed touching the eter- 
nal question which is ever pressing itself upon 
the American public and particularly in the 
southern states, — the negro, his place, social 
status and destiny. 

When the slave trader introduced the 
African into the American colonies an epoch 
was created in American history. The negro 
slave was not responsible for being here. He 
was a victim of intrigue and treachery, and 
humanity was outraged when he was torn 
from his native shore and thrust into bondage 
in a foreign land. After centuries of slavery 
which could not be justified in law or morals, 
he was ruthlessly thrown upon his own re- 
sources among his former masters under the 
8 



The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



gnise of freedom. Struggling with adversity, 
and a prey to the unscrupulous, he has blund- 
ered along the highway called citizenship for 
nearly three score years. No race has ever 
deserved greater solicitude at the hands of its 
superiors. 

^N'o two races have ever possessed greater 
dissimilarity than the Ethiopian and the 
Anglo-Saxon. It is taught by certain evolu- 
tionists that the straight hair of the chimpan- 
zee is maintained through the development of 
man as he has progressed upward from the 
lower order, and is evidence of his simian an- 
cestory, or that he has descended from the 
monkey. In this theory the negro is not taken 
into account. He stands as the only species 
which walks upright, with hair of a kinkiness 
which sometimes causes it to be referred to as 
wool. It cannot be said that the torrid 
climate from which he came, produced this 
phenomena, because it is not evident in any 
9 



''The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



other animal life by which he is snrrouuded. 
The conclusion is inescapable tliat he was 
created in a class to himself, and has so re- 
mained to this day. The color, cranial and 
other physiological differences between the 
white man and the negro, create a gulf lii 
racial matters which no etlinologist can bridge. 

The practical traits of the white man are 
absent in the negro. Temperamentally they 
are as nnlike as their colors. The negro is 
more inclined toward mysticism and the oc- 
cult. He thrives in lodges and secret socie- 
ties wliere symbols and mysteries of the im- 
agination hold high carnival. The tendency 
of the white man, regardless of circumstances, 
is upward, for aggression and development. 
The tendency of the negro, except where in- 
spired by the white man's example, is down- 
ward, toward idleness and lethargy. 

F. Manetta, an eminent student of the 
American negro, found negro cliildren in tlie 
10 



I 



^'TUe Road to Righteous Jiidgmenf^ 

H i w u w— »»— »«»— m I I H I I I II 1 I w n I n H I I M a 

southern states to be mentally alert and 
bright, sometimes precocious, only to become 
dull upon approaching the adolescent period. 
This he did not attribute to environment or 
lack of opportunity, but to the form and 
structure of the cranium which did not admit 
of cerebral growth. However, prodigies were 
occasionally found among them who had a 
genius for rythm, as in the case of ''Blind 
Tom'' whose instinctive knowledge of sound 
charmed his hearers in piano music upon the 
American stage for nearly a generation. 

Among races the wider the diversity of col- 
or, the greater the danger of friction and the 
less the inclination to fraternize. This is one 
of the immutable laws of nature. Caste and 
social distinction between white people and 
negroes is not only marked in this country but 
also in European and South American coun- 
tries. Chile, and other nations of South Amer- 
ica, have large negro populations but no at- 
11 



'T?i€ Road to Righteous Judgment' 



tempt is made there to educate or prepare them 
for citiznship as in this country. In those 
countries they are regarded as a menial and 
subject race, ordained by nature as bearers of 
burdens and the serv^ants of their superiors. 

History records no instance where two peo- 
ples of such divergent types as the negro and 
the Anglo-Saxon have dwelt harmoniously to- 
gether in the same land on equal terms. If 
such were possible intermarriages and amal- 
gamation would be the inevitable result. 
Especially to the Southerner such a course is 
unthinkable and abhorrent. Nothing could be 
more repulsive. WTien he gravitates racially 
his desire is upward as every instinct of his 
nature demands. 

Social equality with the negroid neces- 
sarily implies an invitation to the negro into 
the home of the white man. An invitation in- 
to the home implies an equality of race and 
blood. An equality of race and blood implies 
12 



^^The Road to Righteous Judgment^' 



an invitation to marry his daughters. Such 
intermarriage would mean the destruction 
of the white race and the ideals for which it 
has striven since the white man first appeared 
upon the earth. At the confluence of the Miss- 
issippi and Ohio rivers a stream of blue is 
blended with a stream of murky yellow. The 
purity of one is contaminated by the other and 
a degeneration of the whole is the result. 
Shades of our forefathers deliver us! 

The social barrier between the negro and 
the white man can never be removed in the 
South, and the negro here must forever remain 
socially an Ishmaelite. As a result of this his 
position in the political and commercial world 
must be negligible. He will not be looked up- 
on by his white neighbor as other than a 
hewer of wood and a drawer of water, irre- 
spective of what his education may be or what 
he may think of himself. The door of hope 
for him to social recognition is closed. It 
13 



^'Tlie Road to Righteous Judgtnent'^ 

was closed by the Creator in tlie production of 
two types of man so divergent. No one slionld 
appreciate this more than the black man him- 
self, as he certainly must know tliat he cannot 
over-ride distinctions made by nature. All 
Caucasian races are a unit in tliis view. 

The American Indian possessed qualities 
of mind and imagination which have never 
been approached by his African contemporary. 
His crude flights into the realm of poesy in- 
dicated a bright intellect altho untrained. 
Under stress of conditions and pent up emo- 
tions there came from him outbursts of elo^ 
quence and oratory which Tliomas Jefferson 
classed with the classics of the ancient world 
and betokened an undeveloped power, which 
if trained, would have nothing superior in any 
race. The Indian sought no social recogni- 
tion at the hand of the ^'paleface." He prefer- 
red to remain an Indian and desired no asso- 
ciation outside of his tribe or race. He was 
14 



'^Th^ Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 

for more than tw^o centuries the chief problem 
in American politics until the country finally 
awoke to a realization that he should be a 
ward of the government and not a citizen. 
The Indian question no longer concerns us. 
It has long been settled wisely and well, and 
£;11 thanks are due those wise and patriotic 
statesmen of another generation who met and 
grappled with the question like men until a 
proper status was found for the red man and 
his destiny in America fixed. 

The negro has never been understood by the 
people of the northern and eastern states. 
This ignorance has been due to lack of contact 
with him and lack of knowledge of his char- 
acteristics. The literature of those sections, 
and especially prior to the American civil 
war, disclosed an utter misconception of his 
nature. Their writers dwelt upon the negro's 
supposed wrongs and oppression in the South 
and wreathed into fantasy the sufferings of 
15 



^^The Road to Righteous Judgment^' 



the female slave who was pictured as an Aph- 
rodite in the hands of tormentors. Longfel- 
low, Lowell, and other lesser lights continual- 
ly revelled in pictures of Prometheus bound to 
the rock. 

During the world war the exodus of ne- 
groes from the Southern states to the north 
and mid-west was large. They went to better 
not only their financial condition, but in the 
firm belief that the northern man was their 
friend. They no doubt expected courtesies to 
which they were not accustomed and had illu- 
sioned reasons for these expectations. Certain 
prominent daily newspapers of the city of 
Chicago had prior thereto taken the lead as 
unrelenting critics of the southern white man 
for his attitude tow^ard the negro. Bitter and 
vindicative articles and editorials had from 
time to time filled the columns of these journ- 
als, and their criticism was of an intolerant 
nature. Alas, forsooth, a rude awakening was 
16 



^'The Road to Righteous Judgment^' 



in store for Africanus, upon reactiing tlie 
''Windy City." Upon his advent there in 
numbers violent race riots were staged upon 
the slightest pretext. In many instances he 
was a victim of maltreatment and brutality 
merely because of his color. From his recep- 
tion at the hands of his supposed friends it 
soon became apparent that the negro is bet- 
ter off where he is best known and understood. 
Ohio, President Harding's home state, during 
the first year of his administration, came in- 
to the limelight and obtained its share of ad- 
vertising as an unhealtliy place for the ^'color- 
ed brother" to sojourn. The state of Kansas 
soon followed in a similar demonstration and 
disgraced itself by mobs and race riots. Okla- 
homa, a mid-west state, next came upon the 
scene in an attempt to ''ouj- Herod Herod" in 
racial conflagration. 

President Harding in his first message to 
Congress declared that "Congress ought to 
17 



''The Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 

wipe the stains of barbaric lynching from the 
banners of a free and orderly representative 
government.'' These are fine words, and every 
American citizen with patriotic blood in 
his veins heartily applauds the Pi^esident for 
the sentiments. But in order to *'wipe the 
stain" the cause must first be removed, and 
Mr. Harding offers no remedy for removing 
the cause. After saying that we face the fact 
that millions of people of African descent are 
among our population, the President adds: 

''It is unnecessary to recount the diffi- 
culties incident to this condition, or to empha- 
size the fact that it is a condition which cannot 
be removed. There has been suggested, how- 
ever, that some of the conditions might be 
ameliorated by a humane and enlightened con- 
sideration of it, a study of its many aspects, 
and an effort to formulate, if not a policy, at 
least a national attitude of mind calculated to 
bring :about most satisfactory possible adjust- 
meiit of relations between the races and of 
18 



'^The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 

»— »lfW H I H M II W 11 II ■ I t II I H ■ H— IM^ Wll I I M— II— ■ 

each race to the national life. One proposal 
is the creation of a commission embracing rep- 
resentatives of both races to study and report 
on the entire subject. The proposal has real 
merit. I am convinced that in mutual tolera- 
tion, understanding, charity, recognition of the 
interpendence of the races and the mainten- 
ance of the rights of citizenship, lies the road 
to righteous judgment." 

Mr. Harding's words sound a note of des- 
pair. H^ sees "a condition which cannot be 
removed," from his viewpoint. He seems to 
realize that if every suggestion offered in his 
message is scrupulously followed that only 
some of the difficulties '^might be amelior- 
ated." As a thinking man, he of course real- 
izes that they will not be removed, and that 
during the possible ''amelioration" for the 
time being, racial differences and antipathies 
are only slumbering, and subject to be aroused 
to frenzy at any time and at any place where 
there is contact between the races. Indeed 
19 



^'TJie Road to Righteous Judgment^' 

he might as well have used the language of 
Grover Cleveland who said: 

"There is one problem in American life 
for which I see no solution. It is the race 
problem, the negro question." 

The theory upon which the American gov- 
ernment is founded, is that every citizen shall 
have an equal chance in deciding economic 
and political questions. This carries with it 
the right to help govern and constitute the 
judiciary. The right to the ballot is tanta- 
mount to the right to hold office and adminis- 
ter the affairs of state. The white man does 
not regard the negro as possessing the racial 
or social fitness to govern the Anglo-Saxon or 
Caucasian. It would be a waste of mental 
tissue to argue that these functions should 
be exercised by the Afro- American in this 
country. A sympathetic regard and attitude 
toward the negro in this respect seems to be 
as far as any section of our country is willing 
20 



The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



to go, regardless of loud protestations in his 
belialf in those portions of the country where 
he does not dwell. The native born American 
citizen of the white race will not look upon 
his country as other than the white man's in- 
heritance. This sentiment prevails not only 
in the southern states but throughout the na- 
tion and wherever the stars and stripes may 
wave. 

The ballot in the hands of the negro has 
proven his worst enemy. He is, and will con- 
tinue to be, the tool of designing politicians 
wherever he may hold the balance of power. 
'\Miere his vote is not needed no political 
party desires to be burdened with his aid. 
This is shown by the growth of the ^'lily- 
white" faction in one of our great political 
parties. 

President Lincoln gravely doubted the 
wisdom of enfranchisement of the negro and 
21 



^The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



did not favor a step so extreme. During agi- 
tation by radicals in Louisiana for negro fran- 
chise Mr. Lincoln wrote Governor Hahn in 
1864 saying, 

^^I barely suggest for your private consid- 
eration wbetber some of the colored people 
may be let in, — as for instance the very intel- 
ligent and especially those who have fought 
gallantly in our ranks." 

When the fifteenth amendment to our 
Federal constitution was adopted, Lincoln was 
dead. This amendment is sweeping in its 
character and gave to every negro male of 
voting age the right to the ballot, which he 
yet possesses. If Mr. Lincoln had been alive 
at the time of this amendment's adoption, 
there is no reason to believe that he would 
have changed the opinion expressed by him to 
Governor Hahn of Louisiana in 1864. 

In groping for a solution, certain theo- 
rists, or dreamers maintain that in the edu- 
22 



^'Tlie Road to Riglitcous Judgment''^ 

nation of the negro lies tlie panacea for our 
present ills. That by the elevation of his in- 
tellectual, moral and spiritrtal tone lie will be- 
come a better citizen with liio^her ideals and a 
greater respect for the law. This is indeed 
good and admirable as far as it goes, but does 
not touch the seat of the trouble. Besides the 
plan might work backward by creating greater 
competition between the races, produce fric- 
tion and arouse the blacks to greater aspira- 
tions for social equality with the whites. In- 
deed, the negro is entitled to all the education 
he can assimilate and which he can adapt to 
his surroundings, but under present condi- 
tions, higher education for him will not cuie 
present evils or extricate him from his environ- 
ments. Education cannot eliminate racial 
distinctions; one might as well undertake to 
remove the slant from the Chinaman's eye by 
that means. 

One of the products of the fifteenth 
23 



^'The Road to RigJiteous Judgmenf^ 

amendment to the Federal constitution was 
tlie drafting- of negro soldiers for the world 
war. From a legal standpoint, no other 
course was ojjen. If a citizen and a voter, 
he was properly required to bear arms for his 
country. Some made excellent records, but 
the general result or effect in the minds of 
man}' persons, w^as harmful in that it gave the 
negro soldier an exalted view of his impor- 
tance and unduly elevated the impressions of 
the race at large as to their political and so- 
cial status. Decorations for merit or achieve- 
ment during the war caused the colored recip- 
ient to no longer regard himself as inferior to 
the white man, but to entertain stifled hopes 
of an elevated social position. In many in- 
stances, it vras noted that a resentment was 
aroused in his breast against the race at whose 
table he could not hope to sit or with whose 
daughters he could never expect to associate. 
On the Congo river in Africa, tribal wom- 
24 



'The Road to Righteous Judgment 



en have been known to be assaulted by male 
gorillas. Their form and symmetry evidently 
appear to the beast more attractive than 
the female of his species, and his lust leads him 
to risk dangers which even hunger will not do. 
It is the old story of the feminine attraction 
w^hich detained Julius Caesar in Egypt and 
for which Mark Anthony paid the price at the 
shrine of the Egyptian queen. 

To the potent negro male the figure of the 
white woman seems to appeal. Social bar- 
riers preclude the possibility of him enjoying 
her society or ever claiming her as his own. 
The statutes of all southern states forbid mar- 
riages between white persons and those of Af- 
rican blood. His passions are aroused and 
his lust fired. He knows the chances he is 
taking, but beastly instincts urge him on and 
the woman is in his forcible embrace. The 
community is aroused and a lynching follows. 
These occurences have become so common 
25 



^'The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 

that they barely receive a lieadline in tlie 
newspapers of the day. In each instance, not 
only is punishment meted out to the brute but 
the moral tone of the citizenship is lowered. 
Disrespect for the law in these cases is in- 
creasing and our social fabric threatened. No 
people can violate or trample underfoot the 
law in one instance without impairing their 
usefulness to uphold its majesty on other oc- 
casions. If the culprit were the only victim 
of the mob's vengeance, there would be added 
weight to the argument that the outraged 
woman should not be further humiliated by 
having to testify at the trial of her assailant. 
The people of the so-called ''black belt" of the 
South are the greatest victims of these trage^ 
dies, but the occurances will increase in other 
portions of the country as the black popula- 
tions disseminates. The error lies in the con- 
tact of the two races and their mingling to- 
gether in industry and commerce. Temptation 
26 



''The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



is the basis of these assaults, and will continue 
until the two races are segregated. 

The present head of TusSegee Institute, 
who is Booker Washington's successor, some 
time ago was reported as having warned his 
people through the public press, that social 
equality with the whites can never become a 
reality. The institution over which he pre- 
sides is largely fostered by the money of 
white men, and no expression other than one 
in keeping with the white man's view would 
be consistent, from that institution. Yet, un- 
less ambition is indeed a glorions cheat, there 
inevitably lurks in the mind and heart of every 
educated product of Tuskegee Institute, a 
secret longing to become the social equal of 
any other race among whom he dwells. Other- 
wise education is to him a failure and mean- 
ingless. 

No race or people can be at its best while 
handicapped by unnatural conditions. That 
27 



^'The Road to Righteous Judgment' 



tlie negroes are handicapped by living among 
the whites cannot be questioned. Likewise, 
that the white man is also in a measure, hand- 
icapped goes without saying. The best in 
each race can never develop or be brought out 
while subject to racial differences and antag- 
onisms. It is an unsound sociological condi- 
tion which does not permit or encourage the 
highest ideals in every person living under the 
same government, and every rule of reason and 
principle of logic suggest their separation 
when this cannot be done. 

'There is an abiding menace to each race 
while living together. This was voiced by 
Representative Garrett of Tennessee in De- 
cember, 1921, when in the lower house of Con- 
gress while discussing a proposed anti-lynch- 
iiig bill he said: 

"Many of you gentlemen do not know 
what it is to live in a section in which your 
wife dare not travel a^ne for a distance of a 
28 



''The Road to Righteous Judgment' 



mile through wood or field. You do uot 
kuow what it is to raise a daughter amid a a 
environment where from the very time of her 
reaching the age of ten, so long as she lives, 
the sword of Damocles hangs over her head.'* 

Commenting on the Tulsa (Oklahoma) 
riot which occurred during the spring of 1921, 
one newspaper called attention to the fact 
that many clashes between the negroes and 
whites had occurred in recent years north of 
the Mason and Dixon line. It cited the race 
riot in East St. Louis, Illinois, on July 7, 1917, 
in which 125 persons were killed. The riot 
in Washington, D. C, July 19, 1919, seven per- 
sons killed. A few dayvS later in the city 
of Chicago 38 persons were killed and five 
hundred wounded. Three days before at 
Omaha, Nebraska, three killed and many 
wounded, the mayor of the city was also 
hanged but rescued in time to save his life. 

Kacial intolerance was the firebrand in 
29 



^^The Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 

««»» W ii I I l>«— M^H— l».-»H— .1|«»HH.— M.— »«— i|lf.t||«i^H M ■>— IM^ ;: 

each of the instances cited above. It only 
needed a spark to produce the conflagration. 
That each community in which negroes and 
whites dwell, is continually treading over a 
slumbering volcano, is putting the situation 
mildly. Each needs to be delivered from the 
other and our ever preplexing negro problem 
solved. 

Recently there was a movement on foot 
with head offices in New York City to found 
a negro empire in Africa. It was to be made 
up chiefly by negro immigration from 
America. It was reported that nearly four 
million negroes were adherents to the idea 
and that a negro with expansive vision is the 
originator and leader. As a matter of course 
such an undertaking is doomed to failure, as 
all similiar movements have been in the past. 
It is a mirage altho beautiful in its concep- 
tion, yet never can be grasped. Like the col- 
onization of the Jews in Palestine, it is only 
30 



"The Road to FigJiteous Judgment'^ 



a dream. Nostalgia is a disease from whicli 
no people are immune. The task is too gigan- 
tic and unwieldh'. Tlie negroes in this coun- 
try propogate more rapidly than the whites, 
and with a colored population of ten million 
or more, it is impractical to expect a material 
portion of them to leave the land of their 
birth hoY>'ever alluring may be the prospects 
of an African empire. There is no moral, 
legal or constitutional right to forcibly re- 
quire them to be exiled to a foreign land. 
Neither would Uncle Sam be willing to un- 
dertake a friendly deportation of those will- 
ing to go. 

A negro colony in the Harlem section of 
New York City has a population reaching 
six figures. Here, it is said that the needs of 
the negro for food, clothing and entertainment 
are supplied by their own efforts. The experi- 
ment is illuminating and prophetic. If segre- 
gated under governmental supervision and 
31 



The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



placed to tliemselves, tlieir ideals as a race 
could be attained. The white man placed the 
American negro in his present surroundings 
and the white man cannot escape the burden 
of securing to him the right to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness. These three inalien- 
able rights cannot be guaranteed to the black 
man unless he is favorably situated and given 
opportunity to expand intellectually, morally 
and physically. 

There can be no question as to white su- 
premacy in this country, even though condi- 
tions remain as they are and the two races 
continue to dwell together. But present condi- 
tions will continue to offer an excuse for law- 
lessness and the existence of the mob spirit in 
every instance where there is a semblance of 
a clash between tbe whites and blacks. 

Bonie interesting figures are available 
from the Federal census of 1920, as to the deu- 
&ity Oi population of the various states i-f the 
32 



The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



American union. For instance* The number 
of inhabitants of Rhode Island is 560.4 to the 
square mile. Massachusetts has 47J).2; New 
Jersey 420 ; Connecticut 286.4 ; and K^w York 
217.9. 

The negro is a native of and thrives in a 
warm climate. Some of the northern states and 
eastern states with the most dense population 
have less than one per cent negroes, while cer- 
tain southern states have a negro population 
exceeding that of the whites. The negro's home 
is in the South, where he has a right to remain 
and where he is adjusted to climatic and other 
conditions. The population of the southern 
states, in density, as compared to those states 
cited above, is insignificant. As an illustra- 
tion, Alabama has to the square mile only 
45.8; Arkansas 33.4; Florida 17.7; Georgia 
49.3; Louisiana 39.6; Mississippi 38.6; South 
Carolina 55.2; Tennessee 56; Virginia 57.4 

In each of the southern states above men- 
33 



^'Tlic Road to Righteous Judgmenf^ 

"—"W—tl—gl^^H—IM— »«—»■»— IH—»IN— ■»—«»— 1H»-.|».—M H in— 11— » 

tioned there are available areas ranging from 
five to twenty miles square which are easily 
adaptable as reservations or colonies, much of 
the land being productive and capable of a 
high state of cultivation if cleared and made 
ready for use. The government should no 
longer hypocritically insist that the negro is a 
citizen and enjoys the rights of a citizen. A 
glance at any roster of court officials or jury 
list brands such an assertion as a falsehood. 
He is not in reality a citizen and has never 
been except in name, and candor demands 
that w^e deal fairly with him. Regardless of 
the adoption of the Fifteenth amendment the 
negro belongs to a subject race as nature has 
ordained for him. Europe abounds in sub- 
ject races. The Croats, Slovenes, Lithunians 
and others. Some of these subject races are 
of a high intellectual caste, and have thrived 
and prospered in Europe for centuries. They 
have a history and literature of their own but 
34 



''The Road to Rigliteous Judgment" 



had no national existence prior to the world 
war. 

Through a governmental commission the 
available waste land of the southern states 
above mentioned should be investigated with 
the view of providing colonies or reservations. 
Each reservation could now be obtained at a 
nominal cost and accomodated to the proxim- 
ity of the negro population. If needs be sev- 
eral reservations could be located within a 
single state. Thus populated with negroes 
these reservations or colonies could be given 
territorial status or status of insular posses- 
sions, and offered the opportunity to demon- 
strate their ability for self government. No 
home owner should be required to abandon his 
home against his will, yet by appropriate na- 
tional legislation sufficient inducements and 
encouragement could be offered which would 
soon locate the bulk of the colored population 
happily and amicably within the given terri- 
35 



•Tfw Road to Righteous Judgment' 



tory. By gradual process of proper adjust- 
meuts our entire negro population would ul- 
timately occupy tbe area set apart to them. 
Here towns would be built, farms opened, 
school houses constructed, and churches erect- 
ed. It would mark the beginning of a felici- 
tious era in the life of the American negro, and 
open an avenue for his moral and intellectual 
development whicli has hitherto been closed. 
The Fifteenth amendment, if expedient, might 
be repealed. Thus under favorable conditions 
and unmolested by fear, the negro could work 
out his destiny among his own people. Being 
self supporting he would not be a public bur- 
den as in the case of the Indians. No further 
objections could be urged against educating 
him in the arts and sciences, and he would 
find his place in our government without con- 
tact with the white race and removed from 
those who would subject him to servile treat- 
ment. The purity of the Caucasion blood 
36 



*^The Road to Righteous Judgment" 

» II n Bl 1 n — »»■■ ■■ 11 111 M ill ■ « »■ M ■ I ■ I I I 1 1 m M I H ■ 

would be preserved, and our children and chil- 
dren's children relieved of a cloud which oth- 
erwise will remain over them like a pall. Is 
not this, indeed, "the road to righteous judg- 
ment/' referred to by Mr. Harding? 

Indifference to a subject so vital to ou» 
national life is a crime against civilization. 
Yea, it is more, it is a crime against those who 
are yet unborn. The age and generation, 
which through inertia, indifference or coward- 
ice, refuses to deal wath a subject of such su- 
preme importance as the race question, but 
passes it along in an aggravated form to the 
next generation, evinces no statesmanship and 
deserves the condemnation of those who come 
after them. Until the question is settled 
rightly, once for all, the American negro must 
of necessity continue to be the white man's 
burden. 

In my dreams I stood upon the bank of a 
wonderful river, — the river of American civili- 
37 



The Road to Righteous Judgment'^ 



zation. It was broad and deep, and upon its 
mighty bosom were myriads of crafts of va- 
rious sizes and shapes, some black, the others 
white, all intermingled and gliding upon the 
current to the ocean. The white crafts seemed 
of superior construction and speedier than 
the others. The mist hung low, and my heart 
was heavy as I beheld the haunted look upon 
the faces of the beings within the crafts, and 
especially upon those within the black crafts 
as the two colors jostled each other. I be- 
held the disregard which the white crafts had 
for the black crafts and the resentful conduct 
of the black crafts as they each sped on their 
way. Often they would by chance collide and 
the air resounded above the din of the waters 
with the shouts and curses from those on 
board. A fierce conflict would ensue, result- 
ing in the destruction of many crafts of each 
color. And I heard the moans of those who 
went down and heard the voices of infants and 

1.0-4 



■The Road to Righteous Judgment^^ 



Rged ones who had no part in the conflict. 
And I heard the voice of the wise man w^ho 
said, "It is unnecessary to recount the difficul- 
ties incident to this condition, or to empha- 
size the fact that it is a condition w^hich can- 
not be removed.'' 

The scene shifted. I stood further down 
stream. I saw a dividing line in the middle 
of the river with the white crafts on the right 
and the black crafts on the left, each gliding 
sw^iftly and peacefully to the ocean. The sun 
was shining and my heart w^as glad as I 
heard the laughter of children and the songs 
of those on board as each color sped onward 
towards its destination without contact with 
each other. I heard the voice of the wise man 
again and he said, "I am convinced that in 
mutual tolerance, understanding and charity 
between the races lies tJie road to righteous 
judgment. '^ And I saw the crafts all finish 
their journey, the white crafts keeping to the 
39 



^'Tlie Road to Righteous Judgment^' 

light and tbe black crafts keeping to the left, 
and altho the speedier and superior crafts on 
the right were often called to the assistance of 
those on the left, yet discord had left the river 
and there were smiles on the faces of those 
who formerly had haunted looks as they all 
sped onward toward their common destina- 
tion. 

THE END 



40 







^^^ 



,% c> 




: %,^ :»^ %/^ ; 












^ii^'^aM^ 














r^""^ <' 



0' 



DCBBS BROS. 

LIBRARY BINDING 







■^ ^^^^1,^. «^ -^ 



^•^m 



g^ 32084 ^- 




UBBAR"^ 



OP CONGBESS 





01 



1 562 



i 
127 • 



